QUAIL. 
155 
of the sternum is remarkable, partly on account of the depth 
of the keel, which is very great in proportion to its length, tlie 
sternum of the Swift alone — at least among British birds — being 
comparable with it in this respect, and certainly not exceeding 
it. It is very different from that of the true Grouse (and I 
think also from that of the Quail and the Partridge), in which 
the sternum always has two sinuses, with the furcula long, 
slender, and furnished with a large flattened process at the 
junction of the crura ; whereas in the sternum of the present 
species there is but one sinus, and the furcula, besides being 
short and rather stout, is merely furnished with a small and 
somewhat rounded knob.* 
THE QUAIL. 
Coturnix vulgaris. 
In addition to the exanple shot in Orkney in 1833, referred 
to by IMessrs Baikie and Heddle, Mr Grayl" mentions that the 
i late Mr J. H. Dunn, of Stromness, got eleven eggs that were 
found by a woman when cutting grain near his house.” A 
very similar instance occurred at Burrafirth, in Unst, on the 
25th of September 1868, when a woman brought me eight 
eggs which she had just found while reaping a small field of 
oats. She stated that a few weeks previously she had observed 
i a bird resembling a small landrail in the same field, but as it 
suddenly disappeared, it was supposed to have been killed by 
a cat ; there were ten eggs originally, but two were accidentally 
broken on the way over the hills. This is the only recorded 
instance of the occurrence of the Quail in Shetland. 
According to Captain Feilden, it has bred in Faroe. 
* The portion of the diary from which this notice of the Sand Grouse is taken 
is given in full in Appendix C, as a fair sample of the author’s way of keeping 
his daily register. — Ed. 
t Birds of West of Scotland, p. 245. 
